Van Heerden bags Agra’s National Weaner Champion title for 2018
Loraine van Heerden was crowned as Agra’s National Weaner Champion for 2018, marking the third time since the inception of the competition that a woman is honoured with this title.
The Agra weaner competition builds networks and the opportunity for producers, while also granting opportunity for producers to feature their best weaners, putting emphasis on, fertility, growth ability, capacity to produce meat and farming practices. Ultimately the competition creates a platform whereby producers can share best practices, thus assisting in identifying and filling knowledge gaps.
Agra’s CEO, Arnold Klein stated that this competition further reiterates Agra’s commitment to the development of the agricultural sector in Namibia.
“We at Agra are steadfast in our commitment to the development of agriculture in Namibia. We are proud that this competition attracted the diverse broad farming community, ranging from small scale resettled farmers to established commercial farmers, from both the communal and the commercial farming area,” Klein said.
The central, southern and northern regional winners were also awarded prizes on this exciting evening. The competition consisted of three categories, which were feedlot potential, veld potential and heifer breeding potential, and the criteria of the judges was based on ideal weight for maximum points 220 kg to 260 kg, assessment of farming practices, uniformity of type and weight, condition, growth potential and muscling and breeding potential of heifers, amongst others.
The main sponsors of the competition were; Bank Windhoek, Feedmaster, Sanlam and Santam and the associate sponsors were AgriBank, Bayer, Hino Indongo/ Indongo Toyota, MSD, Paratus Africa and Power Bat. A collective sponsorship amounted to approximately N$450,000 in cash.
Caption: 2018 National Weaner Champion Loraine van Heerden.
